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St Helens becomes a digital community

| Nov 5th, 2015

“Now, with O2, we can take our business anywhere.” – Joanna Jenner, Bartons Pickles

Last month O2 Business paid a visit to St Helens with one thing in mind: to create a Digital Community. Find out how we got on and what it is has meant to the local (and future) business owners of St Helens.

We chose St Helens for our pilot visit after a survey revealed that almost half of the new digital jobs created in the next five years will be in London and the South East. These low levels of digital job creation suggested the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ was at risk.

Ben Dowd, O2’s Business Director explains:

Dan Butler, MD of local business Unite Healthcare welcomed O2’s presence, suggesting that businesses, both locally and nationally, need to evolve digitally in order to keep up with changes in consumer behaviour:

The Digital Communities project is about affecting real change and helping businesses practically through technology. One of the real success stories has been Bartons Pickles. Enthusiastic pickler, Joanna Jenner explains:

While Digital Communities is about helping local businesses to embrace technology, our focus is also very much on the future of communities. We spoke to some of the students in St Helens to explore their relationship with technology and the digital world:

How can you get involved?

Digital Communities is an ongoing project and we are running dozens of free workshops and classes for the people and businesses of St Helens, offering everything from tech tutorials for start-ups, through to coding classes and digital career clinics for young people. To register simply visit the website or just come and visit us in our Digital Hub in the Hardshaw Centre (next to M&S) in the town centre.